Gambling Stadium is a casino center where "one account gives you full access to multiple casinos." These casinos are Mona Lisa Casino, Shangri-La Casino and Snap Casino. The concept of being able to choose from multiple casinos at one Net location is appealing, until you discover that all of the casinos in the Gambling Stadium group are virtually identical, powered by the same Unified Gaming Java (no download required) software.

Although Unified Gaming software is somewhat primitive, it's lauded by online blackjack enthusiasts for its favorable blackjack rules -- arguably the best on the Net.

At Snap Casino, the Gambling Stadium casino I chose to play, you have your choice of a single-deck game or a six-deck game. Savvy blackjack players know the fewer the decks, the better your chances of beating the house, and steer clear of the six-deck game. Table limits for single-deck bj at Gambling Stadium are $1-10, $10-50 and $25-100. The dealer stands on soft 17, you can double on any 2 cards, and double after splitting. Another player-friendly rule is early surrender against an ace, meaning that you can give up half your bet BEFORE the dealer checks for blackjack. Late surrender is available against a ten.

The rules had me salivating but, for reasons unknown, my credit card deposit took nearly 24 hours to go through. The site claims that deposits are processed Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. EST. If outside of this time frame, the deposit will be posted by noon the next day. Guess you're out of luck if you want to play late at night.

When the chips finally reached my account the next day, I dropped a couple of hundred at the blackjack tables, so I can't vouch for the withdrawal system. But if it's as slow as the deposit system, I wouldn't expect payouts to be especially prompt.

Gambling Stadium offers a 15% match play bonus on your initial deposit of $500 or more. Deposit $100 to $499 and they''ll add a 10% match play bonus. After you've played enough to qualify, a little "play bonus" button automatically lights up. Nice touch.

In addition to blackjack, video poker, slots, keno, roulette, paigow and baccarat are also available.

Gambling Stadium, which is headquartered in San Pedro, Costa Rica, has plans to purchase ten Internet casinos by December 2001. All the new casinos will be incorporated into this site as they are acquired, and customers will be able to play at each new casino using their Gambling Stadium account.

My rating for Gambling Stadium: A pair of tens